The Induction Sandwich & My Second Delivery

I think like many of us, you too have googled ‘safe ways to induce labor naturally’ – I bet you did! We all heard of the bumpy rides, the ‘doing the deed’, the pineapple, the spicy food, etc. This induction sandwich is the only scientifically proven natural way of inducing labor that is 100% effective! The best kept secret!NOT. This is simply the story of my second delivery and the birth of the induction sandwich.

By the grace of God, my three pregnancies (so far) have been amazing. I’ve never experience morning sickness, or any sickness at all. At times my babies didn’t agree with my food choice, and those were the only times I got sick. And that’s okay.

When I was pregnant with Miss Josephine, I felt she was big. My doctor ordered an ultrasound at week 36 (or sometime around then) and she seemed to be okay. My due date was February, 8 2016.

On Thursday, January 28th, Benedict and I decided to visit our neighbors across the street Jim and Marilyn: this lovely couple who had been married for almost 60 years. At the end of the visit they offered to take me to the hospital that if needed. The reason was… I was going to be home alone. I am never home alone! At that time, my mother and brother lived with us, so there was always someone around. That particular night, my husband and my brother were going to the movies to watch the new Star Wars movie and my mother was working nights. But what were the odds of anything happen THAT particular night, right?

I bathed and fed Mr. Benedict and put him down for the night. After that, I made myself what is now known as the induction sandwich. It was: bread, ham (I am more careful about deli meat in pregnancy now, don’t judge!) cheddar cheese, tomatoes, green olives, hard boiled eggs, mayo and Dijon mustard. Yum! That was going to be my dinner. I ate it while watching something on Netflix and went to bed. Aaron and Alex get home around 10:30 and mom got home 7 minutes later.

Oh but I had to pee ONE MORE TIME. I remember getting up and saying: ‘Good God, how much longer of this?!‘ but immediately praying: ‘It’ll last as long as you want to and I will accept that‘. I felt SO big, tired and sore. Really, I was just being my normal whiny self. Aaron was using our bathroom so I went to the kid’s bathroom. After I got done peeing, I heard this loud gush. I thought: Surely I didn’t just pee again! I went into a little bit of a shock. I get up and the gush of water keeps coming. It was clear to me my water had broken. I rush to our bedroom and knock on the bathroom door: Honey! My water just broke, we have to go!! Aaron calmly says: Okay honey, I’ll be out in a minute. I was in panic mode, and wasn’t thinking at all. I decided to change my soaked pajamas into clean maternity jeans. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT MAMA?! You’re soaked and it’s 11 PM and you’re about to deliver a baby, for Jime’s sake! But I did. Within 1 minute my jeans were completely soaked as well. It was so much coming out and so violent that I kept trying to close my legs – like that was going to help. We finally grabbed the last things we needed (toiletries and phone chargers), we told my mom we were heading to the hospital and off we went! I had a towel in my car, and when my doctor called me I asked him: DOCTOR! It’s SO much and SO hot – is it normal? Ha! The poor guy probably couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Please note: my water had also broken with my first delivery but it was mild and gentle – NOTHING like this. Also, only 10% of women break their water unlike what every movie we’ve seen portrays.

Anyway, we get to the ER entrance and I get out of the car and the only thing I can do is cross my legs to try to stop the Niagara Falls between them. A nurse gentleman snoozing against the wall saw me and made me a sign to rush: he helped me to get in the wheelchair and ran me to the labor & delivery floor. I didn’t have any contractions but my water simply wouldn’t stop coming down. We started the process to get my epidural going, but for some reason that took a while. Once the anesthesiologist came and took care of it, things were looking good. My only concern was: I could still feel my legs and could move them. I remember that I couldn’t with my first – I was a little worried. I have zero pain tolerance so I was really counting on that. Pretty quickly I was fully dilated and ready to deliver. When they put my legs up to start pushing, a nurse all the way across the room said: Oh my goodness, so much hair! Wait, YOU could see her hair already?! Just by opening my legs?

I had a lot of lower back pain and it was driving me nuts! I start pushing and after a few times the doctor says: KEEP GOING at the same time the nurse said TAKE A BREAK! Honestly, taking a break sounded pretty good so I went with that without knowing my baby girl was halfway out. Baaad idea. I screamed: WHY DOES THIS HURT SO MUCH? The second brilliant question of the night in case you haven’t noticed. One more push and she was out! This beautiful and hairy baby girl came out screaming – she had SO much black hair. She wouldn’t stop crying for the next 30 minutes – a good sign of what was going to be part of her beautiful and sensitive personality.

I can’t imagine what women that don’t have anesthesia experience. I respect them fully – but that is simply not something I will choose as long as I have the option. I am well aware we were born to do this and that we can, I simply like to get some relief during labor, because my body breaks everywhere and I will be in much pain afterwards anyway.

I must admit I love how everything worked out perfectly. The one night I am home alone, my water breaks 10 minutes after every one gets home. God does things perfectly! I used to say: If my water breaks in public I won’t be embarrassed, it’s only natural. Yeah, okay. Maybe I won’t if it’s like the first time, but the way it happened with Josephine was semi-traumatic. Now, at 35 weeks pregnant I have a plastic mat under my chair at work in case the Niagara Falls episode repeats itself. I’m fully aware that it may not happen, but just in case…

I have also fully named that sandwich the induction sandwich and I love it. People at work have asked what I brought for lunch and I’ll say: my induction sandwich! It always triggers some serious questions followed by some honest laughs. It’s actually a really tasty sandwich if you’d like to try it 😉

I am anxiously waiting to meet Mr. Constantine in the next weeks, and I decided to write about the induction sandwich and my second delivery. I will write about the first one at some point, because those are the happiest days of my life. Every time I drive by that hospital my heart jumps a little bit. I am sure enjoying the toddler days (for the most part, you know how that is) but thinking about their births always makes my heart warm.